23 December 2016

Brussels, 15 December 2016 – The Danish
Environment Minister, Esben Lunde Larsen, had to answer to the Parliament
yesterday following questions put to the Government by all the opposition
parties. The long list of questions had been drafted two months earlier,
prompted by the revelations of Maersk’s shipbreaking practices in South Asia by
the Danish investigative journalists, Danwatch, and the daily newspaper
Politiken. All opposition parties called on the Danish Government to ensure
that Maersk’s end-of-life vessels cannot be broken down in beaching yards.

Apart from a semi-attempt to filibuster by
reading out the already available written answers and paraphrasing the Hong
Kong Convention, the Minister insisted on quoting technical details and the
obligation to follow the law. He was unable to give political direction on how
the Government would work to stop Danish companies’ use of the polluting and
dangerous beaching practices in South Asia and on Maersk’s threat to swap the
Danish flag for a non-EU flag if the EU does not approve ship recycling on the
beaches of Alang. The MPs present, representing the spectrum of Danish
opposition political parties (including Social democrat member of parliament,
Christian Rabjerg Madsen, and the head of Socialistisk Folkeparti, Pia Olsen
Dyhr, as well as Ida Auken from Radikale Venstre, Christian Poll from
Alternativet, and Marie Reumert Gjerding from Enhedslisten) and the Chair (Pia
Adelsteen from Dankse Folkeparti), incessantly pressed the Minister to answer
concrete and direct questions on the Danish government’s position on beaching,
Maersk’s threat to flag out, and whether the government is pressing the EU
Commission to list beaching yards in Alang on the upcoming EU list of accepted
facilities world-wide.

If ships were broken on beaches in Denmark
there would be an uproar, the MPs stated. They asked the Minister to outline
how he thought safe working conditions and protection from pollution could ever
be ensured when dismantling a vessel in the intertidal zone of a beach, and
clearly requested the Minister to provide strong political support to end
beaching. To all the questions and comments, the Minister however repeatedly
appealed to his ignorance about the shipbreaking industry and to the literal
text of the EU guidelines under the Ship Recycling Regulation. Whilst the
Minister admitted that flagging out to circumvent EU law is not compatible with
responsible business practices, he refused to answer how he would make sure
that Danish shipping companies only use facilities that are on the upcoming EU
List of approved recycling practices, and which is not expected to include
facilities that use the beaching method. Clearly, Minister Lunde Larsen, in the
two months he had to prepare before the meeting with the MPs, chose to only be
briefed by the interested lobby groups who promote beaching practices; most
notably the biggest company in Denmark, Maersk.

“It is shocking that the Minister gave no
political comment or direction, but rather only contained a copy-pasted
quotation fed to him by Maersk. It reveals the lack of political backbone when
we see that Maersk is in such a powerful position to issue statements on behalf
of the Danish government and that the Minister seems to believe this is
acceptable,” said Ingvild Jenssen, Policy Director of the NGO Shipbreaking
Platform.

The insistent drilling by the MPs to the
Minister on the government’s position on beaching left no time for Esben Lunde
Larsen to answer all questions. The MPs would have particularly liked to go
into more depth on issues related to the government policy to enhance the ship
recycling industry in Denmark, and crucially on the government’s engagement to
investigate on the illegal export of the Maersk-owned oil production and
storage tanker, North Sea Producer, from the UK to Bangladesh. At the end of
the meeting, Pia Olsen Dyhr (SF) called for another meeting with the Minister
to discuss these issues more in detail.